Thirty-three year old Luke Somers, the American photojournalist held hostage in Yemen, was killed by al-Qaeda terroristsduring a failed rescue operation overnight. According to reports, at least 10 AQAP terrorists holding Somers were killed in the mission. A South African teacher from the Relief group Gift of the Givers, Pierre Korkie, also being held by al Qaeda terrorists was killed. Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the attempt to free the captives was justified; “There were compelling reasons to believe Mr. Somers’ life was in imminent danger.” Earlier this week, a video was posted by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of Somers and threatened to kill him if unspecified demands were not met. Somers was kidnapped in Yemen in September 2013.

Luke Somers

American hostage Luke Somers was killed in a rescue attempt by the U.S. and Yemen Saturday.

A Yemeni national security official told Fox News Somers was still alive, but badly injured when U.S. special operation forces reached him in the rescue mission.

He had been injured by Al Qaeda militants during the raid. He would later die being transported to a U.S. Navy ship of Yemen.

Numerous AQAP terrorists holding the hostages captive were killed in the mission.

President Obama released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the “barbaric murder” of Somers by the Al Qaeda terrorists.

Obama said he ordered the rescue mission attempt Friday.

Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry all expressed their condolences to Somers’ family.

Major General Ali al-Ahmadi, chief of the national security bureau in Yemen, said Somers was killed during the raid and other hostages held by the group had been taken to field hospitals, but gave no details about them or their condition.

Somers was removed from the scene but died later from a wound he suffered during the rescue attempt, a senior official in the Yemeni president’s office said.

Relief group Gift of the Givers said teacher Pierre Korkie was also killed.

Exactly how is it that al Qaeda can have a meeting of so many individuals, including al Qaeda’s crown prince Nasir al-Wuhayshi, out in the open and there was no knowledge of this by the CIA or the Pentagon? Where was the drone strike that would have decimated al Qaeda? How is it that the NSA can spy on all law abiding American’s emails, phone calls, tweets, etc. but no one knew about this very public open meeting? UNREAL!!! Instead, Obama goes after a cowboy in an over-reach of force.

As reported at The Politico, Rep. Mike Rogers said Tuesday that Al Qaeda is stronger than ever, and that they are doing all the things necessary to prepare a strike.

“The less pressure you put on them, the more they take that as a victory,” Rogers said. “The more that they believe they can get away with plotting, planning, organizing, as you saw there, finance training, all of the things that they would need to do to strike a Western target, they’re going through that process, including, by the way, bringing very sophisticated people to devise new devices that would try to get around security protocols at airports and other places.”

In a speech to the group, al-Wuhayshi makes it clear that he’s going after the United States, saying “We must eliminate the cross. … The bearer of the cross is America!”

A new video shows what looks like the largest and most dangerous gathering of al Qaeda in years. And the CIA and the Pentagon either didn’t know about it or couldn’t get a drone there in time to strike.

U.S. officials won’t comment on that, but every frame of the video is now being analyzed by the United States.

In the middle of the clip, the man known as al Qaeda’s crown prince, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, appears brazenly out in the open, greeting followers in Yemen. Al-Wuhayshi, the No. 2 leader of al Qaeda globally and the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has said he wants to attack the United States. But in the video, he looks unconcerned that he could be hit by an American drone.

Another Obama lie that got him reelected … al Qaeda is on the path to defeat

Terry Lee Loewen, a 58 year old avionics technician has been arrested after his failed suicide bombing terrorist attemp at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kansas. The Wichita Eagle reports, that Loewen was arrested without incident after his failed suicide bombing where he planned to inflict a maximum number of deaths at the airport prior to Christmas. Thankfully, unbeknown to Loewen, the individual he had been conspiring with in the bomb plot were FBI agents. Loewen is now facing federal charges of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Before you say, hmm … looks like a domestic terrorist because all the media was quick to say is that, he is white. Yup, no Muslim connection here. WRONG!!! Terry Lee Loewen is a white male who self-radicalized himself by reading Islamist literature online and had made statements about wanting to commit “violent jihad”against the United States. As Jihad Watch aptly and correctly states, when will this ignorant media get a clue as they “continue to pretend that jihad terror has something to do with race rather than with religious belief and ideology.”

Terry Lee Loewen

For months, authorities allege, a 58-year-old avionics technician named Terry Lee Loewen – driven by radical ideas and prepared to die in a suicide attack – moved forward with a plot to detonate explosives at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

The planned attack was designed to inflict the maximum number of deaths at an airport in the nation’s midsection before Christmas, says a detailed criminal complaint filed Friday.

The plot got as far as a gate to the airport shortly before 6 a.m. Friday, when authorities arrested Loewen without incident. What he didn’t know until his arrest is that the people he had been conspiring with all along were FBI agents, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced Friday, stressing that the public and passengers were never in danger.

Loewen now faces three federal charges filed in Wichita: One count of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization that Loewen thought was al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen.

Press Conference with United States attorney Barry Grissom announces the arrest of Terry Lee Loewen on terrorism charges on Friday.

From the presser, Terry Lee Loewen has been under investigation by the Wichita Joint Terrorism Task Force since early summer 2013:

Loewen has been under investigation by the Wichita Joint Terrorism Task Force since early summer 2013, Grissom said. Loewen didn’t realize he was having an online conversation with an FBI employee in which Loewen expressed “desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of al Qaeda,” the criminal complaint said.

Over a period of months, Grissom said, Loewen took a series of steps to act on the plot, as part of the jihad, or “holy war.”

There is an Aug. 5 communication in which he told an FBI employee, “As time goes on I care less and less about what other people think of me, or my views on Islam. I have been studying subjects like jihad, martyrdom operations, and Sharia Law.” He was also quoted as saying “I believe the Muslim who is labeled ‘a radical fundamentalist’ is closer to Allah … than the ones labeled ‘moderates’. Just my opinion; if I’m off base, please set me straight.”

The protests in Egypt and deadly riots in Libya and Egypt have spilled over now to YemenandTunisia.Protesters in Yemen climbed the US Embassy walls ripping down the American flag yelling “death to America”. After waiting for hours following the attacks of out foreign embassies and the death of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Libya, Barack Obama claimed that we would get those responsible for these heinous acts. Then what did Obama, the Commander in Chief do? Well, he went on to campaign in Nevada of course become the Campaigner in Chiefand completely trivializing the fact that four Americans were dead, murdered at a US Consulate on 9-11 on his watch. As reported at the Politico, a Consulate that had no Marines protesting it on of all days, the anniversary of 9-11. How could there have been such a screw up? Right Scoop asks why the MSM is not posing the question to Obama, why was this facility so ill prepared and protected, especially on 9-11? Of course we and most honest thinking people know the answer is because the MSM is in the tank for Obama.

In Sana, witnesses said Yemeni security forces had tried to disperse a crowd at the fortified embassy compound in the east of Sana, the capital. But protesters broke through an outer perimeter protecting the embassy, clambering over a high wall and setting fire to a building.

They were forced to retreat after trying to plunder furniture and computers, the witnesses said.

Security forces guarding the embassy fired into the air as protesters set fire to two vehicles and burned tires. Protesters tore down and burned an American flag, replacing it with their own banner proclaiming the Islamic faith, witnesses said.

The protests and riots continue in Cairo, Egypt as President Barack Obama continue to escalate with no end in sight. Obviously, the stern words by Barack Obama yesterday have fallen on deaf Muslim ears. The protests are supposed to be even larger on Friday as Muslims get ready for Friday prayer.

Riot police fired warning shots and tear gas early Thursday outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to keep hundreds of protesters, while demonstrators in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a breached a wall at the American mission, witnesses and government officials said.

The protests are the latest to roil the Middle East over the online release of a film produced in the United States that denigrates Prophet Mohammed.

Several thousand protesters demonstrated outside the embassy in Sana’a, with some breaching the embassy’s security wall.

“Given recent regional developments, earlier this morning, angry protesters unfortunately flooded the security perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen and breached the embassy’s wall,” according to a statement released by Yemen through its embassy in Washington.

Al Qaeda terrorist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki won’t be down for breakfast. According to confirmed Yemen and US officials, the American born cleric al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen. Anwar al-Awlaki has been linked to many terrorist attacks on the United States, including the Fort Hood Massacre, the attempted Christmas Day underwear bombing and the Times Square bomb plot. Al-Awlaki was killed about 5 miles from the Yemeni town of Khashef, east of the capital city of Sanaa.

The American-born radical cleric al-Qaeda Anwar al-Awlaki, a major jihadist figure who U.S. officials say inspired several terror plots against the U.S., was killed overnight in Yemen, U.S. and Yemeni officials told ABC News.

A senior U.S. official told ABC News the U.S. had been tracking al-Awlaki for some time and had just been waiting for the perfect moment to strike. A Yemeni official said al-Awlaki was killed along with an unknown number of al Qaeda confederates, possibly in a drone strike.

Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, al-Awlaki lived in the United State until the age of seven when his family returned to Yemen. Al-Awlaki returned to the United States in 1991 for college and remained until 2002.

It was during that time that as an imam in California and Virginia, al-Awlaki preached to and interacted with three of the September 11 hijackers, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. He publicly condemned the attack afterward.

Anwar al-Awlaki, American-born, a gifted Muslim preacher and savvy Internet operator, became a powerful al-Qaida tool for recruiting in the West, its English-speaking voice spreading a terrorist credo via a blog, social media posts and email exchanges.

UPDATE II: Jenifer Griffin from FOX News that it was a US missile that took him out; however, it is not confirmed what platform the missile came from, i.e. drone, aircraft, etc.

UPDATE III: WHAT??? CBS calls al-Qaida … al Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen. Does CBS News think that al-Qaida is like McDonald’s or Burger King … a franchise, ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! NEWSFLASH TO CBS … AL QAEDA IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!!!

Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born radical Islamic preacher who rose to the highest level of al Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen, has been killed.